Having finished our survey of the Nansen Cordillera, we set Queenfish on a southerly course for Komsomolets Island, northernmost in the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago. Visibility permitting, we would make landfall on its most northerly point,
Mys (Cape) Arktichesky, some five hundred miles distant. We made two more
vertical ascents into large polynyas en route, one in the early evening of 7 August
and one shortly after midnight on 8 August, to obtain navigation fixes and copy
our scheduled radio broadcasts. The ice surrounding each polynya was noticeably
rougher than that encountered within the Canada Basin earlier in our voyage.1
The number and size of pressure ridges sighted as a consequence of strong windinduced rafting of one ice floe over another told us much about the severity of the
weather in the Eurasia portion of the Arctic Basin.

Stationary dives into simulated shallow water followed each ascent in order
to give the watch sections additional practice. The ice-covered shallow water environment promised to become even more extreme than that encountered in the
Chukchi Sea.

Queenfish managed to catch the top of her rudder under a heavy-ice pressure
ridge at the very edge of the polynya during the first surfacing in spite of indications from the aftermost top sounder transducers, No. 6 and No. 7, that the water
directly above was clear of ice. A brief stationary descent freed the rudder with no
damage noted. The boat then proceeded farther into the polynya, and the surfacing continued without difficulty. It was subsequently determined that, in the initial
stages of the ascent, interference from a combination of a slight up-angle and bub-

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